Mustafa al-Siba'i

Mustafa al-Siba'i (1915-3 October 1964) was Supreme Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria from 1946 to 1961, preceding Issam al-Attar.

Biography
Mustafa al-Siba'i was born in Homs, Syria Vilayet, Ottoman Empire in 1915. He studied Islamic theology at al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and he went to lectures by the Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna before joining the Muslim Brotherhood in 1930. He became a teacher at Damascus University and became Dean of the Theology Faculty in 1940, becoming a leading opponent of French colonial rule in Syria. In 1946, he founded the Muslim Brotherhood of Syria branch of the Brotherhood, and he wrote a 1959 essay that argued that Islam was compatible with socialism, while he complained that it was used to justify Nasserism. al-Siba'i supported the 1961 coup that overthrew the United Arab Republic after his organization was forced underground for its radical Islamist views.